10 Educational Books that have stayed with me
Facebook is awash with challenges from ice-buckets to listing how you’re grateful for the last few days. Another one of these that’s going around is the challenge to list 10 books that have influenced your life in some way. The challenge continues to say that the books do not have to be literary masterpieces and […]
A short guide to religion in primary schools
Over the last number of years, the population of Ireland has changed. One of the things that has changed greatly in the last while is the rise in the number of belief systems in the country. Traditionally, Ireland consisted of a population of around 99% Christians, generally either Catholic or Church of Ireland with a smattering […]
Why we should care about Ireland’s Human Rights Record in Education
Last week, the Irish government was given a major slap on the wrist for the way it is treating the human rights of some of its citizens. While the news mainly reported on the horrific nature of the Health Service, our education system was highlighted not for the first time as failing to recognise Irish […]
Who Jan O’Sullivan shouldn’t Hire as her Advisor
Jan O’Sullivan is our new Education Minister and, as a new member to the cabinet, no one has any preconceived ideas as to what sort of minister she will be. It is likely that she will come under pressure from the second-level teachers to reverse all the Junior Cert cycle stuff so hopefully she won’t spend all […]
Fitness to teach is all about motivating teachers to love their job-Part 2
Self-actualisation and flow In my first post on performance-related pay, I spoke about the process of performance related pay and how motivation is connected strongly with a high performance for teachers. This is the last post on the topic and will concern the whole area of motivation and achieving goals through pure enjoyment. Flow You […]
Cutting the cost of school uniforms? Why not cut them altogether?
Irish parents are to be balloted on school uniforms in the coming weeks in the latest government scheme, which aims to reduce the cost of uniforms to families. According to the newspapers, supermarkets seem to be able to sell uniforms (without crests) for less than €30 in total but when crests come into play, the […]
How to save the Irish language
One of the most popular conversations I have with non-teachers is about the Irish language. Conversations generally start with the allegation that nobody really speaks the language then goes down one of two avenues: whether there is any point teaching it or what can we do to make sure it doesn’t die off as a […]
Suspensions, Expulsions and Social Media
A couple of weeks ago four secondary schools were in the news for all the wrong reasons. A number of students were punished in varying degrees of severity for behaviours that were of varying degrees of unacceptability. The reaction of the media, the students and their parents highlighted a lot of interesting debates, few of […]
Killing Primary Education
Back in October, The Irish Times ran a feature outlining the most influential people involved in education in Ireland. Eight months later towards the end of the school year, I thought I’d have a look at the man at the top of the list, Ruairi Quinn. The list itself was rather interesting in that it […]
10 Twitter Tips
This is a great post from The Whiteboard Blog and might be a good follow up to the Tiny Guide to Twitter posted a couple of days ago.